In general, silver halide photosensitive materials (to be simply referred to as photosensitive materials, herein. after), after exposure, are typically processed through a series of steps including development, desilvering, washing and stabilization. Usually use is made of developer for the development, bleaching solution, bleach-fixing solution or fixing solution for the desilvering, city water or deionized water for the washing, and stabilizer for the stabilization. The photosensitive materials are dipped and processed in these processing solutions which are adjusted to temperatures of 30.degree. to 40.degree. C.
A typical arrangement for such processing includes a plurality of juxtaposed processing tanks filled with the respective solutions wherein photosensitive materials are successively passed through the tanks. Most often, automatic developing machines or similar processors are used for such processing.
In recent years, environmental maintenance and resource saving are of general concerns. It is desirable to reduce the amount of processing solutions used in the processing of photosensitive materials.
In accordance with the current development of a small. scale processing system generally known as mini-labo, photo. sensitive materials are processed at photo stores. There is a need for smaller size processors.
The inventors previously proposed an apparatus for processing a photosensitive material comprising a plurality of washing compartments defined by block-shaped members and interconnected through narrow channels and means for transferring the photosensitive material successively through the washing compartments as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 27034/1989. A photosensitive material processing apparatus of similar construction, but adapted for development, desilvering or the like is also proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 90422/1989. These apparatus have several advantages including a size reduction, more efficient processing, and a reduced amount of processing solution used. Although these apparatus have the above-mentioned advantages over the prior art processors, a problem arises that a single tank cannot accommodate plural types of processing because the compartments of the tank are filled with processing solutions having at least an identical function.
A further approach the inventors proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 99855/1989 is a photosensitive material processing apparatus of the same construction wherein at least one discharge port is positioned at a position other than the entrance and exit compartments that the photosensitive material enters first and last, respectively. This arrangement allows a single tank to accommodate plural types of processing by changing the position and number of discharge ports, resulting in a reduction in both the amount of processing solutions used and the size of the apparatus.
In the processing of color photosensitive materials, the desilvering step following color development is a critical step and often requires a plurality of processing baths such as bleaching-fixing baths and bleaching-blix-fixing baths, particularly for color negative films and other picture-taking color photosensitive materials which are normally less susceptible to desilvering. Therefore, it has heretofore been required to use a plurality of processing tanks in accordance with the types of processing baths, causing a bar to apparatus size reduction.
In this regard, it is quite effective to apply the apparatus of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application No. 99855/1989 to the desilvering process requiring a plurality of processing baths. Arrangements for such application are proposed in Japanese Patent Application Nos. 133395/1989 and 212790/1989.
Further studying the desilvering process and subsequent steps such as washing and stabilization, the inventors have discovered that if so-called occasional processing adapted for relatively small quantities of photosensitive material is continued over a long time, there eventually results a situation where sufficient photographic properties cannot be achieved and a problem of poor desilvering often arises.